A double bill brings together Mobile, Alabama songwriter, visual artist, storyteller, and documentarian Abe Partridge with Kentucky singer and guitarist Justin Wells for an intimate performance centered on vivid songwriting and lived in roots sounds.
Abe’s 2018 debut, Cotton Fields and Blood for Days, launched years of near constant touring across the United States and Europe. He is a familiar presence at festivals like 30A Songwriters Festival and Laurel Cove Music Festival, and has graced revered listening rooms from Nashville to Atlanta to Indianapolis, including the Bluebird Cafe and Eddie’s Attic. Recent tours with Matthew Sweet, Drivin’ N Cryin’, and Dar Williams supported his latest release, Love in the Dark. He has also appeared on NPR mainstays Mountain Stage and Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. With co producer Ferrill Gibbs, he created the Alabama Astronaut podcast to preserve songs from holiness, serpent handling congregations in Appalachia. The series quickly reached the top 10 documentary podcasts on Apple Podcasts and has surpassed 100,000 downloads with an excellent listener rating. As a painter working in acrylic on tarred board and watercolor, his pieces hang in galleries around the Southeast and in the collections of Tyler Childers, Mike Wolfe, Rick Hirsch, Tommy Stinson, and Tommy Prine. His work appears annually at Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens and was featured in Stephen King’s Dr. Sleep. He painted the cover for Charlie Parr’s Last Of The Better Days Ahead and contributed artwork for Tyler Childers’ Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven?, along with posters and special edition art for releases from The Red Clay Strays. His first major exhibition, With Signs Following, opened at Alabama Contemporary Art Center in 2023 and led to a companion book that earned wide praise. He also channels a punk edge with The Psych Peas, a project with three members of The Red Clay Strays known for wild, high energy shows and a cult following, drawing comparisons to Scratch Acid and Butthole Surfers. Another collaboration with David Childers and The Serpents, The Satan, You’re a Liars, yielded Let’s Build This House Together in early 2025, and a new album produced by Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth is planned for 2027. American Songwriter has recognized Abe as one of the Southeast’s most respected songwriters and folk visual artists.
Justin Wells arrives with Cynthiana, a 10 song set shaped by family, close friendships, and creative purpose. Recorded with Grammy nominated producer Duane Lundy at his Lexington studio, the album is an ode to Wells’ wife, Andrea, and to the small central Kentucky town where they first met as teenagers 25 years ago. The music leans gentler than his earlier work while holding fast to the plainspoken power and honesty that have made him a standout voice in Americana, alt country, and folk from Kentucky to the national stage. On the road he builds his audience one room at a time, from neon lit roadhouses to major festivals, a presence praised by outlets such as Rolling Stone for its electric energy and classic country grit. He frames his songs as blue collar music that speaks to everyday struggles and seeks common ground with whoever is in the room.
Tickets are $25 through Eventbrite or at the door, and they may sell out.
